Brass Monkey Bivvy
Speed dealers, snow, injury and river bashing (November 2023).
Luke’s car back seat inflatey thing is no longer very inflated. There is condensation on all of the windows. My sleeping mat has deflated. It is kind of snowing and there is some snow on the ground. It is cold. There are some far off patches of blue sky. We pack, and leave.
The forest is magical. Everything is dusted in snow. Spiderweb hammocks have filled with deep pockets of snow and the mossy ledges jutting out from the beech trunks have little snowy pillows built up on them. Some of the beeches are shedding strawberries. We keep stopping to say how pretty it is.
“It is so pretty”
There is a lot more snow than we anticipated. Maybe we won’t make it to the bivvy and this will be a nice day walk to play in the snow.
The tops are supremely windy. It is bitterly cold. The weather is undecided. It is not committing to improvement. Maybe we won’t make it to the bivvy. We can see the Maruia Hot Springs just a short bash down the hill. That is still an option.
The tarns on the Lewis Tops are very pretty. Buttercups are peeking through the snowdrifts, and for a moment I think I see a daffodil. Of course it is not a daffodil. The tussock leaves are ice-fringed, and when the wind picks up I need the speed dealers to protect my eyes from the bits of snow and ice being flung up by the wind. We navigate the bluffs before The Apprentice in a very elevation-efficient [steep] way and only rejoin the cairned route when we reach the saddle. We have avoided a fair amount of climbing.
If you don’t understand the photo caption, you should probably check this out. If you do get it, you should probably check it out again anyway.
I retake my photo of the fantastic fault line below Mt Technical. It will be a cool comparison with my old photo, barren, peak summer [It is].
Now the tops get fun. Travel over Lucretia is narrow rocky ridge with a good ground trail. It is the highlight of the route for me. We drop steeply to the Lucretia Hut junction saddle. The wind picks up again. I haven’t been here before, so now I’m just following my nose (and the cairns).
Lucretia
Lucretia (Lucrece) was the devoted wife of Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus. Her story is considered Roman mythohistory and resulted in the formation of the Roman Republic. Lucretia was considered a role model due to her devotion to her husband and her moral and intellectual character. During a siege the last King of Rome (Lucius Tarquinius Superbus) sent his son Tarquin on a military errand to Collatia where he was received with great hospitality. Although there are variations of the story, in all Tarquin seeks to convince Lucretia that she should be with him, and upon being rejected he rapes her. Later, Lucretia tells her husband and father what has occurred, and asks for vengeance, before stabbing herself and dying. The rape of Lucretia was one of the charges levelled against him and the monarchy, and triggered a revolution that drove the King out of Rome.
Luckily Brass Monkey Bivvy sticks out in the landscape [the orange colour helps] and we cruise down to it to have a late lunch, stopping for a slight intermission so I can slide, roll, sprain my ankle with a decisive pop and go into shock. I sit down in the biting wind and drink some water and eat a snickers. I’m okay. The ankle is sore. Luke carries my bag to the bivvy while I limp down, relying on my pole. It is okay. The pop was disconcerting. Mostly I have no pain. But some weight, and some angles, are horrific. We have two PLBs between us. The bivvy is cold.
“It was windy. It was windy… It was windy.”
We have only just beaten Saxon and Lennox to the bivvy. They join us in the bivvy for chat, food, and hot drinks, after they have constructed the most superior rock bivvy in the vicinity.
22:05 Kea calls heard
How will we get out?
Will my ankle be better or worse tomorrow?
It has warmed significantly. At least for us inside the bivvy. There is no change to my foot. But I am confident that I will be able to walk out. But first, I simply must go for a dip in the tarn. It is a bit shallower than ideal and has some ice on the edges. Luke points out that this means the water is close to 0°C. It takes a while for me to regain feeling in my fingers and toes. The bivvy boys are defrosting their sleeping bags. They are going to head up towards Rough Creek for a look, then head back out the Lewis Tops.
Luke and I have decided that One Mile Creek looks like the overall easiest route to get out, if you add the short distance and subtract the lack of a track and lack of any beta. Lennox and I both remember seeing a Wilderness article mentioning it, although neither of us remember any of the details. Here they are, retrospectively.
“For purists, this valley on the northern side and accessed from SH7 halfway between Maruia Springs and Rough Creek, offers a more challenging route [wow, perfect, exactly what I was after]. It is easier to descend this route than climb it, heading down the stream draining the basin to the north into the forest and then traversing the 800m contour on the true right of the valley to avoid a gorgy section.
Grade: Difficult | Time: 6–7 hours”
There are no cairns. The animal trails are good until the bush line, and the bush is steep but open. We progress well, the first kilometer is completed in about an hour, which bodes well. There are some of the biggest Dracophyllum trees I have ever seen. The terrain steepens. I realise may have made some hasty comments on the lack of bluffs and gentle gradient of the creek.
PSA: This creek is not one mile long. In fact, our route was 4.2 miles, although admittedly we did not follow the creek all the way. A rough estimate using Google Earth puts the creek itself at 3.6 miles, which just isn’t even close to one mile.
We reach the creek and are both prematurely excited. First we encounter dense shrubs, then a steep terrace to reach the creek itself. The creek is okay. It is certainly not easy, and it is certainly not getting easier. It walls in. Steep, mossy, dripping sides. There is a belly-button deep pool to hold your breath in while you grope along the rock bluff on your right, trying to avoid going any deeper. Shortly after this we decide to get out of the creek and sidle the slopes on the true right.
We speed up considerably once we leave the creek. There is a lot of rotten wood to fall through. There is frequent bush lawyer to grab. Luke does not like bush lawyer.
“Get ready to bleed”
We are making progress. It is sunny and warm, and our pants dry following the deep pool submersion. We check the map so often it stops being useful, but it does maintain morale. Finally, we decide we can drop down. Or we could have if there were no bluffs. We find a rather marginal looking gully. It looks steep. We deliberate. We go. It is anticlimactic and quite easy. Then we are in the creek, which is now a flat braided stream. I can hear the road. The sun is burning. A car stops to give us a ride within a few minutes. No more walking. Finally.
Anterior tibiofibular ligament sprain
The anterior tibiofibular ligament holds your tibia and fibula together, a relatively crucial task, and there is a risk that damage to this ligament can cause the bones to move apart from each other, causing instability within the ankle joint. Tearing this ligament is a high ankle sprain, a serious injury that usually takes longer to heal than a typical sprained ankle (low ankle sprain); at least 6–8 weeks.
The first response to this injury should follow pretty standard guidelines; Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. Anti-inflammatories are also helpful. Getting your ankle looked at by a professional as soon as possible is advisable as there are many things that could be wrong, and treating it effectively from the get-go can prevent the need for surgery later on. I have had an x-ray, ultrasound, and CT scan, and am in a moonboot for three weeks, after which I will need to see a physiotherapist.
Our route can be found here.
